James’ daughters, 12-year-old Jayla Latrice Parler and 11-year-old Niomi Deona James were killed.
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One of the girls was pronounced dead at the scene and the other was rushed to DCH, where she was later pronounced dead.
Alabama Senior Trooper Reginal King said the girls were not wearing seat belts and were ejected from a vehicle Monday near Tuscaloosa, Alabama.
59, of Huntsville, is charged with murder in the deaths of two girls from Houston, Texas – 11-year-old Niomi Deona James and 13-year-old Jayla Latrice Parler – both of who died from injuries they sustained in a crash on USA 82 just before 3 a.m. Authorities said both girls, who were passengers in a Ford Fiesta and were not wearing seat belts, were ejected.
The girls’ father, Pernell James, 37, had driven to Texas to pick them up at their mother’s home in Houston for a summer-long visit to Alabama, said Dennis Stripling, mayor of the town of Brent.
According to State Troopers, the initial investigation of the crash suggests speed and alcohol may have both been factors.
The officer’s statement said a motorist who stopped to offer aid told officers that the one-time astronaut tried to take his pickup truck.
Halsell’s vehicle rear-ended the auto carrying the children, documents showed, pushing the vehicle across a lane and causing it to flip.
Former NASA astronaut James Halsell Jr., seen here in a NASA photo taken before the STS-101 flight of the space shuttle Columbia, which lifted off in May 2000. A witness reportedly told investigators that Halsell attempted to leave the scene and that his speech was slurred, he was unstable and he smelled of alcohol.
According to court documents, Halsell told troopers he was traveling to West Monroe, La., to get his son and thought he was traveling on I-20.
Senior Trooper Reginal King told AL.com the accident happened at 2:50 a.m. Monday on US 82 near the 65 mile marker, 10 miles east of Tuscaloosa. Two others were injured.
Halsell is free on $150,000 bond. A five-flight veteran, Halsell has logged more than 1,250 hours in space. He also helped relaunch NASA’s flight program after the Columbia shuttle disaster in 2003.
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Halsell is a former test pilot and a retired U.S. Air Force colonel. He retired from NASA for the aerospace industry in 2006 and now lives in Huntsville, Ala.
